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Success Stories: How has Avvoka helped both law firms and businesses during COVID-19?

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(3 minute read)

The adoption of new technology requires rigorous and meticulous examination of vendors to find who can unlock the strongest return on investment, as well as training on how to use the newly procured technology. However, COVID-19 has made digital transformation an urgent business priority. According to McKinsey Digital, during the start of lockdown, businesses, on average, took eight weeks to adopt five years worth of digital transformation. Staggering!

So what’s the purpose of this week’s article? It’s to highlight how our forward-thinking clients have made the most of document automation during the pandemic, and by extension, how they’ve achieved superb ROI through using Avvoka. With the world now working from home, document automation software has jumped to the front of the essential technology queue. It’s become pivotal to the daily operations of innovative companies across multiple sectors; from banks needing to approve emergency loans, to pharmaceutical companies filling out information from potential trial participants for a COVID-19 vaccine.

Here’s a few elements of end-to-end document automation that have most empowered business during the pandemic:

  • Live Document Collaboration 
  • Workflow Automation
  • Clause Libraries
  • Mass Document Generation 
  • Analytics

Below, we’ll go into more detail about some of these features and how we’ve seen them being used to excellent effect during the pandemic :

signing contract

Workflow Automation

As we discussed last week, workflow automation tools have become an integral element of efficient post-pandemic corporate life. Workflow automation is the creation of a series of automated actions which replace manual processes, such as physically approaching your supervisor to sign off your work.

In our new way of working, you can’t just pop into your colleague’s office to get something approved. Instead, your obvious alternative is now to email or call them. This can be a nightmare if they’re busy in back-to-back meetings, you’re on a deadline or if they have unconventional working hours. Due to this, unlocking the power of workflow automation has been a powerful solution for helping our clients to overcome this problem.

One of our biggest clients is a global juggernaut in the entertainment and media space. It has a vast global presence with one of its subsidiaries operating in 150 countries alone. We help their employees automate a variety of internal documents, such as non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and partnership agreements. 

Avvoka’s workflow automation tool has helped employees to quickly secure document approvals from senior figures who can’t be accessed in person as they’re working from home while making granting such approvals easier too. Moreover, workflow automation has made obtaining international approvals and global colleague input a seamless experience too.

workflow

For example,  take the NDA. Since our client operates in several countries, their NDAs cover multiple jurisdictions. We helped our client add multiple approval workflows to their NDAs to reflect this reality. They have set their workflow up so that, depending upon which region is selected in the NDA questionnaire, the relevant approvers are automatically notified to check and approve the NDA. Our client loved this! It streamlined their international transactions, reduced email traffic for approvers and sped up our client’s ability to get programmes up and running in different countries.

Clause Library

Businesses love using clause libraries. Clause libraries let users store various provisions in a central folder, enabling them to add these to their templates whenever they are required. If the clause needs to be updated, instead of going into each template and manually changing the clause, all you need to do is amend the clause in the clause library.

Our SME clients use clause banks to store similar clauses with slightly varied wording (differentiated depending on the sector of the given deal counterparty, for example). Having these clauses at their fingertips saves them time when customising documents, which is a principal aim of document automation and legal/ops tech generally.

clause library

As with workflow automation, clause libraries have come into their own during COVID-19 as getting hold of internal colleagues to share bespoke wording for niche contracts has become more challenging. Instead of delaying the completion of these new contracts until they hear back from colleagues, employees have been using clause libraries to find and add the required custom, pre-approved clauses themselves.

One of our clients,  an online travel agency, makes particularly extensive use of  the clause library. Their website operates in over 30 languages, so it’s important for their documents to have multilingual capability. This client often negotiates contracts in one language but, due to the jurisdictions involved, some additional wording in another language is required. 

Mass Document Generation

Corporate transaction volumes have rebounded substantially since the start of the third quarter of 2020. According to the FT, the number of M&A deals this September was 73% higher than during the same time last year. 

With working from home blurring the lines between the professional and personal spheres, it’s become more important than ever for us all to establish and maintain a work-life balance. 

A high volume of M&A deals on the cards can mean a long streak of deal closings with each involving a substantial number of largely duplicated documentation. The last thing any lawyer or business person wants to be doing is replicating the late nights of the office, at home.

 

Contract automation technology

Avvoka helps clients with this problem by allowing them to populate hundreds of (even highly complex) documents in one go, including bundles of related documents (like a suite of corporate authorisations).

Avvoka helped the Brussels office of an international law firm populate multiple documents in one go during a private equity transaction, which took place over the school holidays! The client had to draft multiple hundred deal documents. Instead of the Client having to perform the manual, time-intensive task filling in the same input fields and consequential drafting amendments with ever-so-slightly differentiated information in each document, Avvoka “saved Christmas” for the client. By using Avvoka’s mass-generation tool, the client saved hours and didn’t have to end up spending the multiple all-nighters over their children’s holiday period undertaking an automatable task. Since that particular transaction, the client now regularly uses Avvoka to generate multiple documents and have been able to deliver even quicker and better-value deals for their own clients.

What’s Next?

COVID-19 has opened people’s minds to the importance of technology. Specifically, within the legal world, document automation has been an incredible tool which has facilitated our clients’ ability to deploy remote working. The examples we’ve covered show how Avvoka has been able to help, and we hope that this trend continues – automation helps make jobs easier!

If you want to find out how you can get started with document automation, check out The Ultimate Guide: Document Automation 2022 – Our very own e-book where we provide expert legal tech advice about everything you will need to know and learn.

By:  Raam Jeganathan
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Document Automation: The Legal Tech Star of COVID-19?

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(3 minute read)

Much of the hype around computer software, especially in the Legal Tech world, has been reserved exclusively for the buzzwords of the day, artificial intelligence and machine learning. Why wouldn’t it? 

AI and machine learning both sound like intriguing but opaque topics, hard to understand without a computer science background. The idea of creating a machine that can automatically learn and improve from previous experiences, despite not necessarily being programmed to do so, is very alluring but intimidating. 

Who wouldn’t be excited about the idea of using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do their work for them? 

Despite their allure, artificial intelligence and machine learning have not been the stars of the show during the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead we think the stars have been:

Tobias Lütke, the CEO of Shopify, told the Business Insider,

“The future we imagined for 2030 has been pulled forward to the present, with everything going digital by default.”

With that in mind, it probably comes as no surprise that with the worldwide shift to online many legal tech firms are thriving. 

Below, we explore what the COVID-19 pandemic has meant for Legal Tech firms :

The Need for Innovation

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically altered day to day life for the vast majority of people around the world. Businesses and law firms have been no exception to this drastic change. Numerous businesses have been forced to shut down, and those that are still operating have had to change the ways that they work. 

Pre-pandemic, many businesses and law firms were stuck in the status quo, following outdated processes because ‘that’s the way it’s always been done’. It wasn’t broken, so why fix it?

However, even before the COVID-19 crisis, many clients were already beginning to ask for more bang for their buck. Companies were fed up paying for processes that involved disproportionately large manual burdens and labour costs. These processes included physical file maintenance, hand-signing documents, drafting handwritten notes and subsequent word processing and archaic methods of billing.

These practices were not practical when COVID-19 hit, as most individuals around the world were sent to work from home. Most of the companies, therefore shifted online, meaning that it was necessary to adopt more innovative practices at pace and scale.

Document Automation as the Solution

Where does document automation come in? Document automation software allows you to create perfect, custom documents by filling out a questionnaire with bespoke information. Automation enables you to do your job more efficiently by reducing the amount of manual legwork and repetitive tasking that’s required to draft documents. At the same time, automation reduces errors and improves consistency and quality of work. 

Document automation

Automation allows companies to free up their employees to:

  • Do more of their most critical and mentally stimulating work
  • Complete their job more efficiently
  • See a higher return on investment 
  • Meet and exceed client expectations
  • Eradicate errors by removing opportunities for manual mistakes

Remote-first working has further highlighted the need for document automation to ensure a smoother collaborative working experience where employees and customers are based in multiple locations around the world. With platforms like Avvoka, teams can easily collaborate while drafting a document, while clients can take part in the negotiation of the agreements in the same platform. This allows companies and law firms to get to yes faster, especially in these uncertain times.

Document automation is the perfect solution to address the issues caused by the shift to remote working. Using automation means that you do not have to rely on your colleagues to produce the first draft of a document. This is especially useful when you are working across locations, and potentially across time zones. 

Implementing a document automation platform also ensures that all team members are able to see exactly which documents have been created, what stage they’re currently at and more importantly that everyone is on the same page.

Importantly as well, using a document automation system can ensure compliance of a company’s data security policies. Although everyone is currently working remotely, this allows managers to have direct access to information on every individual who has worked on the document, making sure that nothing is missed and no mistakes are made.

Innovation during COVID-19

There is no doubt that we’ve seen a massive change in the way that we work. For the business world, the vast majority of this has happened behind the scenes as they’ve adopted new technologies to ensure that they can work from home. 

According to Forbes, innovation allows companies to provide their customers with:

“expanded access, choice, delivery speed, value, and satisfaction.”

As businesses shift their operations online many of them have adopted automation software to innovate and continue to meet their customers’ expectations. Customers have begun demanding the change, and it is up to the businesses to provide it.

Innovating during COVID-19 is no longer a luxury and instead, has become a necessity. Document automation has become an increasingly popular software across the board; from banks needing software to approve loans, to medical services using the software to fill out client information. 

There are lots of features common across document automation platforms that we think have been useful through the pandemic, however one particular feature that we’ve seen become increasingly popular during the pandemic is for a document automation system that goes beyond first draft automation, and instead one that also incorporates workflow automation. 

With most if not all deals being completed online and employees no longer in the same office, there has been an increasing need to maintain processes. Being able to incorporate their workflow and maintain the same hierarchy of approval for a document has been invaluable for many of our clients during COVID-19. 

The pandemic has changed the face of document automation, and what clients are looking to get out of their automation platforms. With greater attention to workflow automation and integration to ensure the same practices used in the office can be used between employees across different locations, many systems are shifting their focus to improving and developing this feature. 

COVID-19 has quickly improved the rate of acceptance of the document automation software available in the Legal Tech world. The rate of growth will likely continue to exceed all previous expectations.

The Future of Innovation and Document Automation

The Legal Tech world has learned a lot during the past seven months, including that the customers should come first – evidenced by the uptake in Legal Tech and document automation. It is no doubt that COVID-19 has drastically affected innovation and creativity in the business world, and it will continue to do so. 

The ongoing pandemic will continue to drive innovation within businesses. As part of this, document automation will be at the forefront of many companies’ minds if it is not already. 

The shift towards the worldwide acceptance of document automation is welcomed and is undoubtedly driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. Document automation has outpaced better-known technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence. This has been due to its quick implementation period and the immediate time and workload savings made to the day-to-day activities of all businesses, as well as its ability to improve working from home experiences and mimic the workflow used in many different offices. 

In contrast to more advanced technologies, document automation software can be quickly deployed to meet the new demands that have come to the fore during the pandemic. 

While one can’t make easy predictions about the adoption of Legal Tech software across companies – what is inevitable is that the future of Legal Tech, and which technologies will achieve mass-adoption, is up to enterprise customers.

By: Amy Conroy
Vector illustration concept of return on investment. Modern illustration conceptual for banner, flyer, promotion, marketing material, online advertising, business presentation

ROI: Seek and you shall find

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(3 minute read)

In our previous article, we discussed why this “pens down” period might be the ideal time to reflect upon internal processes and the opportunities that may exist to improve them. Here, we hope to highlight the ‘everyday’ documents which are strong contenders for automation which have traditionally been overlooked.

Today we will discuss :

Return on investment is everywhere 

A great place to start thinking about this is to consider which documents you have worked on, opened, or attached to emails in this past week. Of these documents, which of them are you likely to work on or open again next week? Chances are, despite their importance, you’re not sending out share purchase agreements or facility agreements week in, week out! 

industries using document automation software media law firms real estate private equity finance professional services pharmaceutical logistics and supply chain

However, despite the infrequency of their use, we typically find that these ‘core’ documents have been historically favoured for automation. The reason for this is about return on investment: the time investment of using legacy automation software, characterised by “coding”, means it has generally been the preserve of the core revenue-hitting documents, even if they are not drafted on a daily or weekly basis. 

Consequently, all of the ‘non-core’ ancillary documents being utilised on a daily basis were forced into the shadows of automation projects because they did not offer a sufficient return on investment from a time-utilisation perspective.

However, with Avvoka and the other new technologies on the market, businesses now have the luxury of choice since the requirement to learn a coding / mark-up language in order to automate is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. This means that the barrier to entry for automation is now incredibly low, making it accessible to everyone. Thanks to this shift, documents that would be “nice to haves” from an automation perspective become viable candidates to template. 

Non-core but key documents

Set out below are documents that are great candidates for automation which don’t necessarily fit into the camp of “core documents”, but whose automation greatly aids drafting efficiency:

  1. Intra-group agreements (SPAs, asset transfer, assignment, novation agreements)
  2. Company secretarial (board minutes, shareholder resolutions, notice of meetings)
  3. HR documents (employment, notice of transfer, termination and option agreements etc)
  4. IP transfer documents (licence, franchise agreements)

We would hedge our bets that you are far more frequently acquainted with these types of documents on a weekly basis!

These documents are often required en masse and are manually reproduced on many types of transactions. Whilst they may not be revenue-generating heroes, their automation would free up the time of many individuals within an organisation, allowing them to do more valuable pieces of work, and offer greater procedural simplicity. 

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what can be automated

An explanation of how documents can be mass-generated is set out in the Appendix

Automation of forms?

Contract automation doesn’t always have to involve contracts! You could automate almost any type of document. Although it might sound odd, automation tools can rapidly assemble forms that businesses are required to complete on a regular basis. The time savings are excellent but, even better, is the fact that data can be captured in the form and sent straight to another software application (with the right API calls, of course).

Here are some other examples of documentation not traditionally viewed through the “contract automation” lens but which are well within the scope of modern tools:

  1. KYC documentation, information security and vendor due diligence forms
  2. New account opening forms
  3. Multi-jurisdictional questionnaires, for gathering local counsel advice on large-scale matters

An example of a form use case is set out in the Appendix

Appendix
Mass-generate functionality

On Avvoka, users are able to mass-generate documents from a single source to further increase efficiency gains on these non-core documents that we have outlined in this article. 

Our mass-generate functionality is achieved by:

  1. Automating a template on Avvoka
  2. Leveraging our Excel builder, which transforms the automated questionnaire into an xlsx file that can be downloaded to allow users to input data
  3. Completing the downloaded Excel file: each column is used to produce a new document
  4. Once the Excel file is completed, this can be re-uploaded into the system. Avvoka will then produce a document for each column of data contained in the Excel file

This offers huge efficiency gains and procedural simplicity for these run-of-the-mill documents.

Using the Excel spreadsheet

Form Automation

The image below shows a standard account opening form which has been automated in Avvoka. Forms are such a great document to automate on the platform because of the ability to route the automated form to numerous different teams and departments within an organisation, as well as having the ability to send the forms out to counterparties.

Example Form Automation

Landing page template of Write Review Illustration Concept. Mode

Pens down – time for tech?

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(2 minute read)

Pens down

As lawyers, it’s rare to encounter the prospect of an extended “pens-down” period. Most lawyers, if they’re not actively progressing a transaction or project, are engaging in troubleshooting, advising and firefighting. 

As any business navigates along its path, it generates legal problems, nuances and opportunities. However, with lockdown now firmly established in most major global economies, there will be an inevitable business slowdown and lawyers are facing the prospect of having more time on their hands. 

In this post we will discuss:

Taking stock

With that extra time and facing the prospect of staring at four walls until June, now is the perfect moment to take stock of what went well over the first quarter of 2020, what could be improved on, and to dig out the list of “to-dos” that never quite gets conquered while things are in full swing.

New tech? Not so fast…

One of those things that’s usually high on most of those to-do lists is process improvement, which might involve evaluating a new tech solution. Although, as a legal tech provider, we’d be the first to encourage you to think about automation; we’re very aware of square pegs and round holes.  

What’s far more important, while lawyers aren’t firefighting, is for them to take the time to work out where they’re adding value in their role and where they’re not. If, after that evaluation, it turns out that you spent Q1 trawling through documents looking for key terms in a portfolio of contracts, then your problem is likely to be one around access to structured contractual data. Now, a solution to that could be as simple as using an excel spreadsheet for logging key data points, or as sophisticated as an AI extraction tool.

Shiny tech might be exciting, but try to avoid finding a problem for a glossy software solution!

Contributing to the discussion

We think that effective process improvement is a subjective exercise that’s rooted in the scrutiny of each organisation’s unique working habits. As a tech vendor, the best thing we can do is provide anecdotal examples of problems that other lawyers have faced when they examined their own workflows. If those problems strike a chord, then that’s great – we effectively contributed to the discussion either by suggesting our own technology or by suggesting that they speak to another vendor (most vendors will have heard a lot of pain points over the years, so are well placed to assist you with finding the right advice – the good guys will tell you who to speak to!).

We’ll also tell you if we think more evaluation work is needed, as most solutions won’t fit your problem right out of the box (sorry!). 

Areas to think about when examining your workflow
  • Document filing, searching and tagging
  • Precedent management
  • Document drafting
  • Workflow and approval management
  • Negotiation, playbooking and escalation methodology
  • Re-keying of information between documents and systems
  • Contract lifecycle management and clause tracking
  • Document review
  • Key term extraction 
How we might help (or not!)

Over the next few months we’re going to be running a series of webinars for lawyers that, after having evaluated their working practices, have decided that they might benefit from automating aspects of the drafting, negotiation or approval process. 

The sessions are free to attend and we’re providing real hands-on experience of learning to automate by setting up users with accounts on our application. We’re also canvassing what problems lawyers are frequently experiencing and will try our best to connect as many with solutions as possible.

For those evaluating if automation might be useful, we’ve prepared a simple flow diagram below

Should I be thinking about automation?
Myths vs facts. Icon on white backdrop. Versus vs background. Vector icon. White background.

Document Automation – Myth vs. Reality

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(1 minute read)

Our top myths and truths

There are a lot of myths surrounding document automation – we take a look at the top 5 below.

1. You need to code

MYTH – you can now automate without needing to know how to code. It is true that having an analytical brain will certainly help, but no coding knowledge is required at all.

People often make this mistake because legacy tools on the market require coding into Microsoft Word, but Avvoka is taking a different approach which allows you to automate using simple visual tools.

2. It takes a long time to automate a document

MYTH – traditionally, the process involved in automating a document has taken a long time. This is not necessarily because the automation process takes a long time in itself, but the process of creating automation instructions, sending it to an outsourced automation team, then reviewing the product, can be very time-intensive.

If you learn how to automate your own documents, this entire process can be reduced – you know what you want to achieve, and can easily add it to the document.

3. I will have to answer 1000s of questions to create a document

MYTH – Many people have experiences of answering question, after question, after question just to create the first draft of a document. This is all down to the approach of automation. We are seeing a shift towards people automating documents by asking just a small number of broad questions, allowing them to generate that document as quickly as possible.

4. I don’t have any documents that would benefit from automation

MYTH – we have automation examples from all practice areas and companies. Any document that is either drafted on a regular, repeat basis or is very complex has the opportunity to benefit from automation. Now that it is so easy to automate your own documents, you might find it beneficial to automate.

5. Automation is not for lawyers

MYTH – this is the biggest myth of them all. Lawyers are the perfect people to automate their own documents. Lawyers instinctively think with a logical mind and when this is combined with the knowledge of how the documents should work, it makes lawyers the perfect people to automate!

Draw attention concept vector illustration.

Interested to know more about document automation? Then check out our ultimate guide, which contains everything you need to know about document automation, planning and executing a document automation project, and how document automation can help your business work more efficiently and get to “yes” faster. 

Read more from Avvoka: 

By: Eliot Benzecrit
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Why learn to automate?

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(1 minute read)

Freeing up your time to do more exciting and complex work

Contract automation is enabling lawyers to work more efficiently by reducing the amount of manual legwork required to draft documents and streamlining the entire process. By freeing up valuable time, lawyers can focus on the more complex and exciting aspects of their client work.

Enhanced training earlier in your career

Through having more time available to contribute towards more exciting and high-value work, trainees are able to experience a greater number of novel learning opportunities. This will invariably contribute towards them becoming more well-rounded and better-trained lawyers upon qualification.

Adding value to your team

With an increased capacity to work on complex and high-value work, lawyers are able to feel as though they are adding more value to their team and their clients. Complex issues also require greater collaboration within teams as well which might strengthen the sense of camaraderie and contribute to team morale.

Greater collaboration between teams 

Contract automation is not just increasing efficiency and collaboration within teams but also doing so between teams within a firm too. With a more streamlined process for drafting documents, different teams are able to collaborate on a more strategic level and find more innovative solutions for clients.

Less scope for error

Contract automation allows lawyers to easily track the changes being made in their contracts during the negotiation stage so that errors are more easily recognised. Alerts are also available to highlight when contracts are missing vitally important information. 

Deepen client relationships

By helping clients to upskill in legal technology and by offering them a self-serve solution to create and draft their own documents, lawyers are able to have a whole new way in which to add value to their clients and interact with them. This undoubtedly helps to entrench client relationships and also has the potential to create new ones.

It’s the future!

Technology is constantly disrupting every business, including law firms! Get ahead now and be ready to add value to your future organisations.

If you want to find out how you can get started with document automation, check out The Ultimate Guide: Document Automation 2022 – Our very own e-book where we provide expert legal tech advice about everything you will need to know and learn.